1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a distal end configuring member of a medical instrument such as an endoscope cleaning sheath including a configuration that sprays an atomized mixed fluid toward front surfaces of an observation window, an illuminating window and the like that are provided on a distal end face of an insertion portion or the like of an endoscope, and removes adherents adhering to surfaces of the respective windows, an endoscope cleaning sheath and an endoscope system using the endoscope cleaning sheath.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, endoscope systems in a medical field have been widely put to practical use with the objective of minimal invasiveness on the occasion of in-vivo observation, medical treatment, surgical operations and the like, and have been widely used in laparoscopic surgical operations that perform therapeutic treatment without performing abdominal section, for example.
For example, in a laparoscopic surgical operation, a trocar is punctured into an abdominal region of a patient, and an endoscope for observation is introduced into the body with use of the trocar. At this time, during in-vivo observation by the endoscope, mucus, blood, fat, filth and the like (hereinafter, these matters will be simply called adherents and the like) sometimes adhere to outer surfaces at the front surface sides of the observation window, the illuminating window and the like which are provided at the distal end face of the insertion portion or the like of the endoscope, and these adherents and the like sometimes hinder favorable observation.
Therefore, in the conventional endoscope systems and the like of this kind, various medical instruments such as an endoscope cleaning sheath for removing adherents and the like on the outer surfaces of the observation windows and the illuminating windows on the insertion portion distal end faces are proposed by, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-132282.
The endoscope cleaning sheath which is disclosed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-132282 described above is of a mode including a wiper unit that removes the adherents on an observation window and an illuminating window. In the endoscope cleaning sheath described in the publication, the configuration having a multi lumen tube that is formed into a tube shape in which an endoscope insertion portion is insertable, and having protruded portions on an outer circumferential face, and a distal end configuring member fixable to a distal end portion of the multi lumen tube is described.
Further, in the conventional endoscope cleaning sheaths, various sheaths in which spray nozzles that eject a mixed liquid prepared by mixing a gas and a liquid and atomized are provided at distal end configuring members are proposed, for example, for the purpose of cleaning the adherents and the like on the outer surfaces of the observation windows and the like of endoscopes and the like which are fitted.
In the conventional endoscope cleaning sheath of this kind, a sheath insertion portion is formed of a flexible tube having flexibility in order to be compatible with an endoscope with a distal end portion configured to be bendable, and a distal end configuring member having a spray nozzle is generally formed from a rigid resin, a metal member or the like. Further, as the flexible tube for use in the sheath insertion portion, a multi lumen tube is adopted, which is provided with a main lumen for allowing an endoscope to be inserted through, and at least two sub lumens for performing gas feeding, liquid feeding and the like. Here, the sectional shape of the multi lumen tube is sometimes formed into such a deformed shape as a shape in which sites where the above described sub lumens are provided to protrude radially, for example, instead of a circular shape. In such a case, the sectional shape of an inner circumferential face of the distal end configuring member to which the multi lumen tube is integrally joined is also formed into a substantially similar deformed shape in accordance with the sectional shape of the multi lumen tube. Like this, in the medical instruments such as an endoscope cleaning sheath, various medical instruments are present, which have the modes in which the distal end configuring members and flexible tubes are joined.